View east from Marsh Lane to Leeds-Liverpool Canal 2, 2 June 1997
View east from Marsh Lane to Leeds-Liverpool Canal (see all photos of the same view)
On the length visible here, much of the motorway is now complete. Towards the bottom of the picture, note the way the road markings run out, and then the layers of surfacing can be seen progressively stopping short as well.
Structure 17a (Marsh Farm overbridge)
Structure 19 (Leeds-Liverpool Canal underbridge)
What's new
The road that made no sense
It was the UK's only single-carriageway motorway, and twenty years ago it ceased to exist. This is the story of the strange fascination it held, and of my place in history.
The forever bottleneck, part 2
The second part of the story, where we learn why exactly the M4 gets narrower on the final approach to Europe’s biggest city.
The forever bottleneck, part 1
The M4 into London was one of the UK's earliest and most ambitious motorway projects. It was bold, pioneering... and almost instantly regretted.
Have you seen...
Aust to Beachley
Today two motorways cross the Severn near Chepstow. But as recently as 1965, the only crossing was a ferry that carried six cars at a time, from Aust to Beachley.
